everything happens for a reason.

Yup, I believe that.

The day Rob came home and told me he had stopped by the Army recruiters I knew that was the path we were supposed to take. I don't know why, and I know that we may never know why, but I'm ok with that.

When Rob got placed in the brigade he's in and we found out he would not be deploying as long as they have their current mission we had mixed reactions. We're (or I'm) glad he's safe and I get to see him when they're not in the field. But Rob really wants that combat patch and as an officer he kind of feels like his guys can't trust him as much as they could if he has a deployment under his belt. And, I'm not going to lie, the deployment benefits would be kind of nice.

But it's not going to happen.

And it's one of those things that we're not sure why he got placed where he is, out of all the places he could have. The odds of not deploying are very slim, so for him to get it when he really wanted to deploy (especially when there are so so many who would not, especially if they've already done it five times) is kind of ironic.

So the question "Why?" comes to mind a lot. And we never have an answer.

Then I got one the other night.

Rob tries to take Yula to the dog park every evening after he gets home. Sometimes it doesn't happen, sometimes we all go with him, a lot of times he goes alone. But we try to get Max to go with him as much as possible. It's for various reasons, sometimes so I have one less kid to worry about, sometimes to get him out of the house since we didn't go anywhere all day, sometimes because Rob doesn't want to go alone.

This particular night Rob convinced Max to go with them. When they came home, their pulling into the driveway coincided with me coming out of the house to toss a poopy diaper in the trash can (poopy diapers do not stay in the house any longer than they need to...). Since I walked out at the same instant Rob parked I figured we'd all walk back into the house together. But as I walked back, they were still in the car. Rob had opened his door though so the lights were on and I could see into the car.

Nothing major was happening, I just saw Rob turned around talking to Max. I have no idea what they were talking about, but I saw Max's face. And the love, the joy, the admiration in his eyes as he talked to his dad.

I know Max loves me, but his dad is his favorite. His best friend.

And I know that is the reason Rob is here. Right now Max needs him.

The time will come for Rob to take his turn and deploy, but it's not yet. For whatever reason that little boy needs his dad right now. 



And I'm grateful I get them both.